Hello,

I have traveled a very rocky, winding road the past few years that I never could imagine I would travel. I survived Covid in 2021 thanks to your answered prayers, assistance, and the work of my medical teams. Nearly three years later, I am still fighting to cope and recover from that time. I was released from that initial hospital horror, and have since taken additional ambulance rides, additional visits to the OR and ICU, and I still visit my local rehabilitation hospital twice weekly. I get very emotional as I'm still trying to adjust and accept my new "normal." Medical PTSD sends me into a panic just revisiting and writing out the course of events, but I feel as if I owe it to you to fully explain myself to validate my decision to begin fundraising.

I had/have a laundry list of post-Covid symptoms. The most debilitating were issues with short term memory and things like getting lost in the grocery store or being confused and lost in my own home that we had just purchased before I became sick with Covid. I was diagnosed with Parsonage Turner Syndrome of my dominant arm which made tasks like dressing myself or fixing my hair impossible to perform on my own, and left me in incredible pain in my right arm and shoulder. MRIs were conducted as the hospital initially thought my shoulder was maybe dislocated from being proned in Covid ICU. Multiple trips and physicians at an orthopedic hospital in Houston finally came to the diagnosis, but that diagnosis took a backseat to my breathing issues.

I required a tracheostomy during my time in the Covid ICU. After I was discharged from the hospital I didn't realize it myself, but my family members, friends, and coworkers could hear me straining to breathe as I audibly inhaled and exhaled and strained to speak. A member of my Beaumont Covid team ordered a pulmonary function test. He attempted to perform a bronchoscopy with minimal anesthesia and I could not tolerate it. He then referred me to a pulmonologist and ENT in Houston. The cartilage of my trachea was damaged from the initial tracheostomy. My pulmonologist and ENT performed multiple procedures in the OR for a year in an attempt to keep my air way open. Those procedures would help initially, but sometimes it was just 4 weeks later, and I was back in an ambulance headed to Houston needing my airway stretched open again.

My ENT and I made the decision for a tracheal resection in February 2023 because I could not return to the OR every month and live my life. The resection was an attempt to correct the a frame cartilaginous collapse of my trachea that resulted from the initial tracheostomy that was needed in 2021. This surgery took place February 2023. I have no memory from my coma and being in the Covid ICU, but I remember the recovery process of this major surgery as grueling, painful, frightening and very lonely. I then developed granulation tissue which required two more attempts at treatment before being discharged. By the end of April 2023, my husband had to drive me to the emergency room in Houston because my airway was failing. My ENT attempted to place a T tube in my airway. My surgical notes state "the accidental decannulation in the recovery room with false passage of the tracheostomy due to inadequate length of the tube required emergent return to the OR..." Then the incisions were expanded to make way for the full tracheostomy tube.

I recently celebrated that it has officially been over a year since I have been admitted to the hospital. I am thankful that I have been able to be a present wife, mother, and business owner trying to adapt to my new "disability." However, my recent office visit with my ENT revealed that granuloma and scar tissues are now more advanced and are affecting my ability to speak. The plan is to reevaluate me in September and return me to the OR to cut away at the scar tissue and perform another stretch to preserve my ability to speak and breathe.

This truly shakes me to my core. This is a lot of trauma and risk of trauma to my body's airway. I live in fear, and wake up with anxiety and panic. I am thankful that I am still alive with the efforts of my pulmonologist and ENT, but I cannot return to the OR to risk additional damage to my airway without seeking a second opinion.

I am fundraising because I need help to travel and seek the expertise of additional doctors. I was shocked that I very quickly was reviewed and accepted to make an appointment with an ENT at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. This physician was part of the world's first ever human tracheal transplant team. I'm not yet consenting to that very experimental option, but I need the eyes, brains, and hands of physicians with access and the ability to perform earth shaking medical feats, because that is where I am. I will not survive with more trauma to my airway.

I am an imperfect human with a million different faults, but I believe God has carried me this far for a reason. I've come so close to death, and it has not happened yet. I have more work and more living to do here. There are days when it all feels so heavy, that I just want to give up. I have not given up yet, and I very humbly am asking for assistance to seek help. I needed to tell you my full story. It is a lot, and I thank you for reading this far.

Gratefully,

Ashley Price